The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 113

~hall be honoured in view of them. IV. There is forgiveness with God for all sin. Y. Those who are in the most responsible position are the most called to offer sacrifice for their sin. VI. The forgiveness of sin is only through expiation, in recognition of an atonement. These points embrace much of the teaching of the Mosaic economy. Consider- !. THE LAW OF GoD THE STAJ\"DARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The sin which bas to be expiated is "sin against any of tlu commandments of the Lord." While distinction was plainly made from the first between the fundamental moral law, as in the ten command- ments, and the ceremonial law-still all that was "commanded of the Lord II was law to Israel-was to be strictly observed, involved the covenant relation between God and man, to violate which was to be estranged from the peace of God. The ceremonial law taken in connection with the Decalogue and the whole of the Mosaic appointments, set forth this great truth, that the existence of man in all its extent was subject to the will of God, and that that will as declared was law, which must be obeyed at peril of Divine displeasure. So there is still the same subjection of man to law, which is: 1. The law of tlu heart or of the inward man. 2. The law of ethics, of man's relations to bis fellow-man. 3. The law of tlu religious life, of man's worship of God. Tha standard of righteousness must be applied in each of these spheres of Law, which our Lord shows by his Sermon on the Mount, when he proclaims the will of God to be holiness in all these respects-poverty and purity of heart, love to neighbours, sincerity and devotion in tlu worship of God. Against the Law any offence is sin. Therefore, as the gospel was a new proclamation of the Law, so was it a new revelation of sin; for Christ, by the Spirit, came to " conviuce the world of sin," by revealiilg the law of righteousness. . II. SIN IS OFFENCE AGAINST THE LA w. The fundamental conception of the Mosaic economy was the fellowship of God and man-the true blessedness of human existence. The Law was a setting out of the boundaries of that ground of fellowship where alone God and man could meet together. Whether it was civil law, or moral law, or cere- monial law, the same twofold reference was in each to the will of God as Creator, King, Redeemer, to the trustful subjection of man to Divine authority. An offence against Law in this wide sense of the word must include not only a deliberate setting up of the will of the creature against the Creator as in immorality or intentional disobedience of any kind, but anything in the conduct which hinders the fulfilment of the Divint1 purposes, anything which opposes the Law as an active principle. We recognize the same universality of sanction to law in that inevitableness which we attach to the laws of nature, whether physical or social. They work out their results both in the individual and in society, apart from all respect of persons. The good man violating a law of nature must suffer the consequences. Not because he is punished by the God of providence, but because he has put himself in the way of the great chariot of the world's onward progress, and has become so far an offence and a stumbling-block, which must be treated as such. It was a grand advance in revelation that all human life was regarded as based upon law, and all law was declared to be God's Law. 'fherefore, all rightness, all happiness, both positive and negative, must be from God, the fruit of a living fellowship between the creature and the Creator. III. EXTENSION OF GUil,T TO OFFENCES OF IG~ORANCE AND ERROR. The word rendered ignorance signifies wandering from the way. Therefore the idea of the offence is not that of absolute ignorance of the Law itself, which would exclude the idea of guilt alto- gether, but rather that of inadvertence, through carelessness, through human infirmity of any kind, or through the connection of our own life with the life o~ others.. "T~ere are many things which man's conscience would pass over, many thrngs which might escape man's cognizance, many things which his heart might deem all right, which God could not tolerate; and which, as a consequence, would interfere with man's approach to, his worship of, and his relationship with God 11 (Macintosh). Hence the veed of a Divine atonement-for as David prays we must all pray, "Cleanse tho11, me. fmm secret faults" (Pe. xix. 12). Now, the sin offering pointed to the fact that such secret faults, unintentional violations of the Law, involved guilt, inasmuch as they were occasions demanding that the Law should be vindicated and honoured as truly as the greatest offences. This has been UDiversally re«>gnized in the law of nations as a natural principle of justice, Tha overt act is alono before the eye of tli-e law, not the  0JL l\t, 1--35.) THE BOOK OF LEVITIOUS. 69